Chris Roberts' Star Citizen Announced

The countdown on the Roberts Space Industries Website has concluded, and we have word that Star Citizen as the new game from Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts, which will indeed be a new PC-only space combat simulation. The game will be crowd funded through a link on the website, though at the moment this is still asking for a login from their whole viral countdown dealie (enter "42"). Word is that the game has been in development at Robert's LA-based Cloud Imperium Games for the past year, and while it will not be complete for another couple of years, they intend to have a playable version in the hands of their backers in about a year. Here's the Announcement Trailer and here's word:
Chris Roberts, who helped define the space sim genre in computer games during the 1990s with his Wing Commander® and Privateer® franchises, is back in the cockpit again with a new title he says will change the way people perceive games for the PC and will breathe new life into space combat games. The new game, Star Citizen™, was officially announced today at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Online taking place at the Austin Convention Center. The game is being developed by Roberts’ Cloud Imperium™ Games studio, located in Los Angeles.

Roberts’ re-entry into gaming comes after he spent more than a decade as a director and producer in the Hollywood film industry. In 1990, he introduced Wing Commander to the world of PC gaming and the franchise went on to sell millions of units and spawned multiple sequels, a feature film and another highly successful game franchise, Privateer.

Star Citizen, already 12 months into production, will be launched on the PC and will include all the Chris Roberts hallmarks that fans of his games have come to expect over the years: high quality cutting-edge visuals and technology, a virtual world that is immersive and detailed, a sophisticated storyline that is wide in scope and visceral, heart-pounding space combat.

“In recent years, game designers have stopped innovating and pushing the boundaries of what you can do in this genre,” says Roberts. “I plan on bringing that kind of development mentality back into PC gaming and space sims in particular.

“There is a lot of noise out there regarding social and mobile games right now, and I think PC gamers are feeling a little left out of the mix. But the PC is still incredibly capable of presenting an experience that doesn’t take a back seat to any other platform out there, including consoles. With my game, I want PC gamers to stand up, be counted and get excited again about all the great experiences their computer can deliver.”

At GDC Online Roberts also announced a program to bring his devotees and other interested parties much closer to the development process. A crowd funding site has been posted at www.robertsspaceindustries.com to help raise the necessary funds for completing development of the project. “Our purpose today,” said Roberts, “is to allow our fans to join us in this process early. It will likely be another two years before the full product is ready for release, but early backers will be able to play a version of the game a year from now.

“We are taking this approach to fund-raising for several reasons,” said Roberts. “For one, this route takes the traditional game publisher out of the mix and enables us to take the millions of dollars normally used by publishers for a triple-A title and plow them right back into developing the game. Secondly, using our own crowd funding mechanism allows us to reach out to our international fans, who have been devoted followers of my games in the past. Thirdly, going direct gets us much closer to our fans and allows us to focus more on the community side, create more updates for our fans and directly interact with them as we are making the game.”

Star Citizen, still in early development stages, will not require a subscription, but will not be free-to-play either. Roberts says the game will be available for a one-time purchase. And while players will be able to play in the Star Citizen universe for free, there will also be virtual items available for purchase with in-game credits so players can customize their ships and other items.

The game is being developed for PC only. More information about Star Citizen can be found at www.robertsspaceindustries.com.
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82.
 
Re: Chris Roberts' Star Citizen Announced
Oct 11, 2012, 08:51
Dev
82.
Re: Chris Roberts' Star Citizen Announced Oct 11, 2012, 08:51
Oct 11, 2012, 08:51
Dev
 
The stated reason they aren't doing kickstarter is they say they want to build the community their own way:

We love Kickstarter. We've backed projects on their site and believe
everyone in the development community owes a debt to Kickstarter for putting crowd funding on the map, and making it legitimate. But for us the ultimate goal of crowd funding is about connecting the "crowd" directly with the creators with as little friction as possible. By building a crowd funding component directly into our site we can insure everyone who wants to back the game can - we provide multiple payment options to make sure that wherever in the world you are there is an option that can work for you. It means you just have one destination to support the project, read updates, and most importantly participate with other members of the community! All on a site that's designed around the game universe being created, providing the least friction possible. Kickstarter, as great as it is, can't deliver this experience, which is why we've decided to go it alone.


Seems kinda a silly reason. They could easily setup something where you have to make a website account to use a separate survey/fulfilment thing instead of using kickstarter's one. Other games have went to a forum setup and mostly ceased kickstarter updates. So if you want to the forums you got the full current details. I think they are missing out on a lot doing it this way (way more than the 10% or so that kickstarter+amazon takes). Also, what a lot of kickstarters are doing is offering paypal once the project hits the goal, so its possible to have other payment options too. Is fact I think the project eternity is doing that if I remember right.

Beamer wrote on Oct 10, 2012, 14:16:
Whoa, I totally missed this virtual credits thing.

Want a new ship, buy it with real money?
Looks a little like F2P to me from that virtual credits thing.

Maybe he's trying to be all things to all people to get more popular. Trying to be MMO since its all the rage. Trying to be F2P since its all the latest rage. But if it is MMO+F2P, I'm not going to touch it until it comes out and gets good reviews.

This comment was edited on Oct 11, 2012, 10:36.
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